'Homebody': One act of universal longing at Central Square in Cambridge

Thursday

Apr 13, 2017 at 1:14 PMApr 13, 2017 at 1:14 PM

By Alexander Stevens, Correspondent

Actress Debra Wise has a feeling that this new character she’s playing may remind you of someone you know: You.

“Homebody” is the name of both the character and the play, a sprawling one-hour, one-character, one-act written by Tony Kushner. It features a woman with a yearning to connect with the world more deeply. Wise thinks it’s a universal longing.

“She’s depressed,” says Wise, who performs the role April 20 to May 7 at the Central Square Theater in Cambridge. “In fact, she’s on medication. She has this feeling of disassociation from the world, and she knows that it won’t be cured with a pill.”

Wise is inspired by "Homebody’s" hunger to grow and change.

“She is so alive with her personal wonder at the world, and she becomes even more alive with her desire to connect with the world in a meaningful way,” says Wise. “She feels cut off from the things that matter.”

That’s one of the reasons that she’s slightly obsessed with a hopelessly out-of-date travel book about Kabul. She’s a British woman, well aware of her country’s complicated history with Afghanistan. And a recent personal interaction with an Afghani shopkeeper has motivated her to stop reading about Afghanistan and actually go visit it.

“She wants to dive into the world,” says Wise. “She wants to be a better role model for her daughter. She doesn’t want her daughter to avoid immersing herself in the world.”

Kushner has been tagged a “prescient” playwright, and that’s largely because of “Homebody,” which he eventually turned into the longer play, “Homebody/ Kabul.” Written just months before 9/11, “Homebody/ Kabul” includes the following lines, which became chillingly prophetic: “If you love the Taliban so much, why don’t you bring them to New York?” “Well, don’t worry. They’re coming to New York.”

Kushner wrote the words, the towers came down, and “Homebody” and “Homebody/Kabul” turned into 9/11 plays, whether Kushner liked it or not.

But Wise believes “Homebody” has relevance beyond 9/11. She says that Kushner is exploring the complexity of Afghanistan. And it’s a function of Kushner’s talent that his plays are bigger than headlines.

“One of the things we admire about Kushner is the way he connects so truthfully to historical moments, and the way he can do it with humor,” she says. “He has the ability to get under our skin and into our heart. I think ‘Homebody’ compares with the best of his writing.”

That’s saying something. After all, Kushner is the guy who wrote the epic and absurdly ambitious “Angels in America.” And Wise says that’s a good example of Kushner’s knack for writing plays that outlive the moment.

“People will still be producing ‘Angels in America’ long after the last case of AIDS,” says Wise.

Kushner’s ability to tell elaborate tales is also reflected in “Homebody/ Kabul,” which takes us from Homebody’s living room (or wherever she’s addressing the audience) to Afghanistan, and a mystery that unfolds in that mysterious land. Why didn’t Wise, who is also the artistic director of Underground Railway Theater, choose to stage “Homebody/ Kabul”?

“I wish we could have,” she says. “It’s a huge, epic play that’s sort of beyond the resources of our theater at the moment.”

She believes, however, she’s staging the part of the play that resonates most with audiences.

“Many reviews reflect that audiences respond more deeply to ‘Homebody’ and they have more difficulty with the sprawling nature of ‘Homebody/ Kabul,’ ” she says.

But Wise adds that her theater is often able to rise to a challenge. She thinks one of the strengths of Underground Railway Theater is that it can “tell epic stories intimately.”

The idea of creating change is also in the DNA of Underground Railway Theater, which Wise cofounded in Oberlin, Ohio in the mid-1970s.

“Our original impulse was to make theater that raises questions about social justice and to do it in a poetic way,” she says. “That remains the same today.”

Cambridge provides a receptive audience for socially aware theater, and in 2008, Wise got a great new home for the company’s work with the construction of the Central Square Theater, a state-of-the-art flexible-use theater. Underground Railway and the Nora Theatre are both resident companies at the venue.

And Wise pops up in her share of plays. Asked if it’s at all awkward for the artistic director to cast herself in shows, Wise says, not really.

“It’s assumed that artistic directors will direct a number of plays in their theater’s season,” she points out. “But I think of myself as an actress, so this is one of the ways I can contribute to the theater.”

And she’s got a juicy role with “Homebody.”

“I found it captivating from the first time I read it,” she says.

Afghanistan. Disassociation. Displacement. “Homebody” doesn’t exactly sound like a yuk-fest. But Wise doesn’t want those subjects to deter people who think the play will be too serious.

“I hope that the people who are coming to see the show are expecting to laugh,” she says, “because the play is really funny.”

“Homebody”

WHEN: April 20 to May 7

WHERE: Central Square Theater, 450 Mass. Ave., Cambridge

TICKETS: Start at $46 (discounts for seniors and students)

INFO: 617-576-9278; CentralSquareTheater.org

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